Parents’ association demands relief from last year’s school fee arrears

The Delhi Parents Association on Friday wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal demanding relief from last year’s fee arrears private schools are charging following a High Court order, citing survey filled by over 3,000 parents wherein 98% of them opposed the arrears

The Delhi Parents Association on Friday wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal demanding relief from last year’s fee arrears private schools are charging following a High Court order, citing survey filled by over 3,000 parents wherein 98% of them opposed the arrears.

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On May 31, the Delhi high court set aside two orders issued by the Delhi government last year, prohibiting private schools from collecting annual charges and development fees during the Covid-induced lockdown.

The court directed that schools may collect these charges for the last academic year retrospectively in six monthly instalments starting from June 10, but only after applying a 15% reduction on total school fees in lieu of facilities not used by students during the lockdown. The court also allowed schools to charge the whole fee, including tuition fee and other charges, for the 2021-22 academic year.

The Delhi government’s education department challenged the order in the Supreme Court which refused to stay the order. On July 1, the Delhi government issued an order allowing 460 private schools, which had filed a petition in the high court, to charge last year’s arrears as per the court direction and barred other schools from charging development and annual fees from parents.

The Delhi Parents Association started an online survey on Google forms to collect parents’ responses on the matter of fees and sent it to the CM and the L-G. “Over 3,000 parents responded with the majority of them being from schools that have been granted permission to charge the last year’s arrears. Around 98% of these parents said they are against the Delhi government’s July 1 order, and 87% of parents think that the Delhi government’s education department failed to properly represent parents’ point of view in the court. We have sent the responses of over 3,000 parents to the Delhi CM and L-G, requesting them to help the parents at a time when the majority of them are witnessing financial challenges due to the pandemic,” said Aprajita Gautam, president of the association.

“We request the Delhi government to listen to the demands of parents and put their issues before the double bench during the hearing scheduled on Monday. So that parents and children can get relief from the court,” the association said in the letter.

A senior Delhi government official said that they are taking every possible step to provide relief to parents. “The Delhi government’s education department had in fact challenged the Delhi high court’s order in the Supreme Court in the matter. The government will continue taking all possible steps to safeguard the rights of parents,” the official said.